STUDENT EDGE—Listening for the Call
When Holly K. Norwick FP’08 was called to the ministry, she faced an internal struggle that one might expect to accompany a dialogue with a God who considered women unfit to be ministers.
Daughter of a conservative Lutheran pastor whose Biblical interpretation left little room for women as church leaders, Norwick recalls that she “resisted [God’s call] quite fiercely but finally submitted, and from then on the math was clear.” Introduced to MHC through a mentor at a community college in Hawaii, Norwick applied to the Frances Perkins Program. Five minutes after receiving her MHC acceptance letter, Norwick resigned from her job in the Honolulu police force.
“Being accepted at a school that empowers women is really the aspect I needed,” says Norwick, who had served as the officer in charge of community volunteers for the Crime Stoppers program. “What I needed was the confidence that it was okay to be a pastor, and MHC has done that. Seeing so many proficient, happy women who don’t find it odd that I want to do these things” boosted her self-image as a woman of faith.
In addition to working closely with Assistant Professor of Religion Michael Penn researching a book on Islamic-Christian relations, she has shadowed Sherry S. Tucker MA’92, the college’s chaplain for the Protestant community, in her ministerial duties.
What has emerged is a pastor-in-training who hopes one day to embrace congregants from all walks of life and economic circumstances, acknowledging especially the legitimacy of hard work to make ends meet, no matter the character of the job. As an ex-cop working part-time as a waitress and singer in a bar to help pay her college bills, she knows what’s she’s talking about.
Norwick is undecided in which denomination she will ultimately find a home. But she’s confident that just as her father has come to open his heart to the call his daughter so thoughtfully answered, her faith will lead her in the right direction.—M.H.B.
Photo by Paul Schnaittacher
